Film adaptation of Willy Russell's play, Stags and Hens, about Linda and Dave, a young couple out on their respective stag and hen nights. Things don't go as planned when both groups accidentally end up at the same nightclub, where Linda's ex-boyfriend, Peter, just happens to be playing with his band.
Provides examples of:
- Accent Interest: When she's introduced to him, one of Linda's friends says that Peter has "a lovely speaking voice," meaning that what was presumably his native Scouse accent has noticeably softened since leaving Liverpool for London.
- Acoustic License: The fact that a lot of the action takes place on a busy nightclub dance floor doesn't seem to impede the characters' ability to communicate with one another.
- Awful Wedded Life: Bernie's marriage is hinted to be this (she complains about her husband forgetting she was going out and not doing his part to care for the kids), which is why she gets so flirty with other men.
- Bouncer: The girls spend a few minutes winding up the bouncer at Bransky's before they go in.
- Coolest Club Ever: The characters wonder why Peter and his band would want to play in a dump like Branksy's, but it actually comes across as a fun venue with a great atmosphere.
- Culturally Religious: Most of the characters in the play seem to belong to the Irish Catholic diaspora in Liverpool. Several characters have Irish names (Bernie, Maureen, Peter McGeeghan). Robbie mentions that he's a Catholic. Bernie wears a crucifix necklace, but also hands out the condoms before the girls hit the dance floor.
- Disposable Fiancé: There's nothing all that wrong with Dave, except his poor taste in friends, but he spends most of the movie passed-out drunk and as a result has almost no characterization.
- Floorfilling Song and Dance: When the band performs "Shoe Shine", there are dancers up on the stage performing actions that the rest of the crowd follows along with.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: One of the bits of graffiti in the Gents reads, "Help the police. Beat yourself up."
- Gaslighting: When Linda first runs into Peter at the Italian restaurant, she doesn't want to go to Bransky's later since she knows that's where Peter will be playing, but later when Bernie tells Linda off for making eyes at Peter, she claims that Linda was the one who insisted that they go there.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Eddie harasses Pete about the fact that he's wearing women's boots. Later, he and Bernie collude to ensure that Linda goes ahead with the wedding as planned.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Peter, who likes wearing women's boots, has an earring, and in general is more of a Pretty Boy (and is visibly shorter than the other male characters). This is in sharp contrast to the groomsmen, especially Eddie, who seems to feel like he needs to assert his masculinity by putting down men he perceives as weaker than him.
- Jump Scare: With under a minute to go and with Linda having made it safely to Peter's van, it is very jarring when Eddie shows up to start banging on the window in an effort to get the van to stop.
- Latin Lover: When he hears that she's getting married in the morning, Mario, the waiter at the Italian restaurant, offers Linda a dance, and the two of them tango around the tables.
- Local Soundtrack: Willy Russell wrote the original songs used in the film. "Shoeshine" is specifically about working as a shoeshine boy for one of the shipping companies whose vessels would dock in the city.
- My Local: The film opens with the band rolling up to a pub on a housing estate to ask for directions to the venue they're supposed to be playing.
- The One That Got Away: Peter and Linda had been on the verge of leaving Liverpool together prior to the events of the film, only for Linda to change her mind at the last minute.
- Oop North: The film takes place in Liverpool.
- Out of Focus: Maureen, Carol and Frankie, Linda's friends besides Bernie, don't get much screentime compared to Dave's friends.
- Peer-Pressured Bully: The other groomsmen, in a fairly tragic way. By themselves, they seem like decent guys (one has dreams of being an artist) and think Peter is cool, even asking him for his autograph. Under Eddie's influence, they either ignore or back up his violent tendencies.
- Power Ballad: The title song is a pretty typical example of a soft rock power ballad.
- Runaway Bride: The overall plot of the movie is whether Linda will be this or not: will she take Peter's offer to leave Liverpool this time, or will she refuse him (as she did previously) to settle down with Dave? At the end, she is literally a runaway bride, as Eddie is chasing her to try to get her to go through with the wedding and she escapes with nothing but her purse and the clothes on her back.
- Setting Update: The original play was set in the 1970s, but the film updates the setting to the then-present 1990s.
- Tagline: "This is one hen night that won't go off half-cocked."
- Wretched Hive: One of Peter's bandmates describes Liverpool as "Beirut without the sun."
- You Must Be Cold: When the film cuts away and back from Pete and Linda's conversation on the roof, Linda is wearing Peter's leather jacket.
